31 Days of Horror EXTRA 02 Friday the 13th the series

Friday the 13th the series

Starting on Oct 3rd 1987 in first run syndication,this was a weekly hour long horror TV series. Our three leads were ,going from left to right in  the above picture,Ryan,Micki and Jack.

Micki and Ryan were distant cousins. Who when their Uncle Louis dies they inherit his antique shop. Wanting nothing really to do with the store. They have a huge sale and are trying to sell off all the odd stuff their Uncle had in the shop.

Then Jack shows up. He is an old friend of their Uncle. And explains to them how their Uncle had made a deal with evil forces.Everyone of the antiques is cursed. So the three of them band together to get back every one of the cursed antiques.

For yall younger folks out there yes I know this sounds a lot like Warehouse 13. The creators of that show talked about how this show inspired them.

Where I grew up this aired Saturday nights at 10:30pm. And I made sure to never miss it. Not only was the stories well done,hell David Cronenberg wrote and directed at least one episode. But the FX work was really good. This was one gory show. I remember a piece in our local paper back then where the Rev Wildmon,the guy that started the letter writing campaign that got The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse cancelled,was ranting about  how "The good God fearing people of Mississippi shouldn't have to put  up with trash like this being on TV."

Now the show really had no connection to the Jason films. I have heard rumors for years that the producers of the show wanted to do an episode where Jason's infamous hockey mask showed up. But that never happened. I keep seeing that when it aired outside of Canada and the States it was called either Curious Goods or Friday's Curse. But no one I know that watched it when it was airing and who lived outside the states saw it with those names. The only connection it has to the Friday the 13th films is the actor that played Ryan was the lead in Jason goes to Hell.

After season 2 the show stopped airing on a channel I got. So I saw maybe 3 or 4 episodes of season 3. Where Ryan ,after being changed into a kid,leaves the show. And a guy that was introduced in season 2 takes his place. This last season while still decent didn't have the feel of the first 2. And that might be why it was the final season. I have heard a few stories on why it got cancelled. The one I hear the most is thanks to pressure from various groups more and more channels had stopped airing it. And it was a very gory for TV show. But compared to what you see on say CSI or shows of it's ilk this show was nothing.

All three seasons have gotten DVD releases. But the cost for them is way too high. Plus they look kind of crappy. About 2 years before those DVDs came out,I got all three seasons on bootleg DVDs.Most of the episodes on my dvds are from airings on some Canadian horror channel. And they look better than the legit releases.

Sometimes Chiller or Syfy channel will do all day long marathons of this show. And it is worth checking out if you have never seen it.

31 Days of Horror 2014 Halloween TV show Extra 01

Tales from the Darkside Season 1 DVD Set
Source-Paramount DVD

Right before X-mas in 1984 I saw my first episode of Tales from the Darkside. Airing Saturday nights at 11pm on ABC,this 30 minute syndicated horror anthology show was pretty much Creepshow the tv series.

The first episode I saw was "A Bad Case of the Stubborns". Starring a teenage looking Christian Slater and a pre Star Trek Next Gen and Night Court Brent Spiner,this is a well done dark humor tale. Christian plays a teen who lives in a small rural town with his mother and his grandfather. One day the grandfather dies. But before the local mortician can come get the body,Grandpa sits up and goes down stairs. He doesn't believe he is dead. Even after confronted what lots of proof. So after a few weeks,in which Grandpa has started to rot and smell,the mother sends Christian to see the town witch. The witch gives the young man a powder. Tells him to put in in Grandpa's napkin and it will solve their issues. Like most episodes of Darkside we get a well done humorous ending.

In this first season there is a few other episodes that stand out for me. Like "Word Processor of the Gods", This episode is based on a Stephen King short story that was first published in Playboy magazine,see people there really is decent stuff to read in Playboy. And then later on published in the King short story collection Skeleton Crew. Our lead is married to a horrible wife. And has a hellion of a son. His brother on the other hand is married to a great woman and has a smart and caring son. Sadly the brother and his family all die in a tragic car accident. After their funeral our lead finds out that his now dead nephew was making him a present. This was back in the early 80s. When people used word processors instead of computers. So the nephew has Macguyvered together a word processor for his favorite Uncle. The Uncle doubts it will even work. By looking at it he can tell some of its parts come from a Lionel Train set,btw I never got the train set I asked Santa for when I was 5. He turns it on and is surprised that it does indeed work. After messing around with it for a bit he learns that it quickly overheats. So he turns it off. It isn't until later that he learns it has special powers. When every you use the insert button it causes whatever you inserted to become true. So he types something about their being a bag of gold on the floor near him. He hits insert and the bag appears. Of course he wonders if the opposite will work, Do he deletes his message about the bag of gold. Which causes it to disappear. Once again the machine overheats and he shuts it off. All this time his wife and son are treating him horrible. He wonders if maybe he can use this so called word processor of the Gods to replace his horrible wife and kid with his dead brother's wife and kid. And in one of the rare occasions we get a happy ending to an episode.

The first season has 24 twenty odd minute episodes divided over 3 dvds. I heard reviews when this set came out about how bad the picture is. It might just be my eyes,but watching these episodes they look decent to me. I am pretty sure this series was filmed on video. So there is only so much cleaning up they can do. The only extra on the set is a commentary from the Godfather of the modern Zombie movie George Romero. He talks about the first episode which he directed. It would be nice if there was more extras. And when this came out it was kind of expensive. That and the reviews talking about how bad the picture is are the reasons why I didn't buy it until I found it for $10 back in 2008. Tales from the Darkside Season 1 DVD set gets a B-.

31 days of Horror 2012 Extra 13

Buffy the vampire slayer season 1
2002
20th century Fox DVD

It has been close to 10 years since I have watched the first season of this fun show. I never got to see it when it was airing . Cause when it was airing on WB we got only UPN. Then when it moved to UPN over cable company took away UPN and gave us WB. So it wasn't until it hit syndication and FX that I got to see it. Loved the show and have been slowing getting the DVD season sets. Got this one last week for $3 total.

Starting as a mid season replacement in 1997 the first season was only 12 episodes. But in those 12 episodes all the mythos are set up. We get introduced to Giles,Xander,Willow and Cordelia.

The stand out episodes are ,The one where we find out Angel is a vampire,The demon in the computer one,and my favorite where there is an invisible girl. Which has a great ending with some secret government group taking the invisible girl and training her to be an assassin. Now my memory might be faulty but this is never brought up again in the rest of the TV series.

The DVD looks pretty good. I know this first season had a very low budget,but the picture and sound is great. There is a few commentaries that are informative. And there is some behind the scenes stuff. Buffy Season 1 DVD gets a B.

31 days of Horror 2012 Extra 05

American Horror Story
2011
20th century Fox Blu ray

Now last year during my 31 days of Horror I talked about the first 2 or 3 episodes of this new series. For some reason I watched the first 6 and never watched the last half of season 1. But the day it hit Blu Ray I bought it and over the past 3 days been marathoning it.

The Harmon's are a some what normal family. The father is a shrink,the mom has just suffered from a miscarriage and their daughter Violet is a moody brooding teen. After Ms Harmon catches her husband cheating on her,they end up moving to California to get a fresh start.

Turns out the house they buy has a long an gruesome history. Pretty much everybody who has lived in it is now dead. And if you die in the house your ghost will haunt the house forever.

Well right off the bat we get clues that this isn't gonna be your normal FX drama. The first episode is packed with strange images and camera work that isn't the norm.

Each episode of the season starts off with a flashback. And it is through these flashbacks we get a bunch of the back story filled in. Like in the first episode the neighbor,played by Jessica Lange,tells the maid "Don't make me kill you again!" Now we already know something is strange about the maid. Cause to the husband she looks like the young woman in the picture at the top. But everyone else sees her as an old lady with a wonky eye. A few episodes later we get a flashback where Jessica Lange kills the Moira the maid. Cause Jessica thinks the maid is screwing her husband.

Each episode is filled with stuff designed to unnerve you. Like the Rubber man. In the first episode the Harmon family finds a latex bondage suit in the attic. It belonged to the previous owners. A gay couple who died in the house. And someone keeps showing up wearing the Rubber Man outfit all through out the season.

What I really liked about the show is seeing some of these episodes for the second time I can see all the little clues and foreshadowing that was in them. Stuff that if you know what to look for lets you know what will happen later on in the season.

The Blu Ray set looks amazing. The sound is well done and helps set the mood. I haven't watched any of the extras. But did listen to the commentary on the first episode. One drawback to that is there is some major spoilers in that commentary. But oh well. American Horror Story season 1 Blu Ray gets a A-.

Sci FI Buzz episode with Clive Barker interview

From 1994 this is an episode of the Sci Fi channels tv show Sci Fi Buzz. It has a fun interview with Clive Barker and Harlan Ellison has his weekly segment that was always fun to watch.

Reel Wild Cinema Lunatics on the loose episode

I loved this short lived tv show. Each week Sandra Bernhart would show edited down versions of various sleazy films from Something Weird Video's amazing film library.

Night Court Season 1 DVD set

Starting in 1984 NBC first aired what quickly became one of my favorite American sitcoms. Night Court was written by one of the former Barney Miller writers. And it had a great ensemble cast. We have Harry Anderson as Harry Stone,the youngest judge in NYC. John Larroquette as the prosecutor Dan Fielding. Richard Moll as Bull Shannon the bailiff. Selma Diamond as the other bailiff  Selma Hacker. Paula Kelly as the pubic defender Liz Williams. And finally Karen Austin as court clerk Lana Wagner.

The pilot episode has a different public defender,who only appears in this episode. And is mostly about Harry's first day as a judge. His unusual ways of handling the cases at first gets on the nerves of the rest of the main cast. But he quickly wins them over when he manages to get a feuding couple to make up. The rest of the season has some great episodes,one of which stars a very young Michael J Fox.

Now most people who remember Night Court remember Markie Post as the super perky public defender Christine Sullivan and Charles Robinson as court clerk Mac Robinson. But Markie didn't join the cast until season 3 and Mac didn't join until season 2. Another cast change happened when Selma Diamond died after the filming of season 2. She was replaced in season 3 by Florence Halop. Sadly Ms Halop only did one season. She died after that season was film,and was replaced by Marsha Warfield as Roz Russell. Also this first season has a more realistic feel to it. The later seasons became more slapsticky. But even then the show was worth watching.

This DVD set came out on February 8, 2005. And since Night Court wasn't being rerun on any channel I got I rushed out to get the set. Then almost 4 years later season 2 finally came out. And since then seasons 3,4 and 5 have come out. The later 2 as MOD DVDs. The first season set has a pretty well done behind the scenes featurette. In which I learned that Harry Anderson wasn't the original choice to play Harry Stone. But he came in and gave such a great audition that he got the role. Night Court season 1 gets a B-.

Hey Vern It's Ernest the Complete series

By 1988 Jim Varney had done "Ernest goes to camp" some DTV stuff and a shit pile of commercials. So he was given his own live action Saturday Morning kid's TV show. I remember seeing a few episodes and really enjoying it. But by the time "Hey Vern It's Ernest" hit the airwaves I was more interested in sleeping in on Saturday than watching a TV show. But a few weeks back I saw that the entire first,and only,season had been released to DVD. Plus it was priced at $5. And now over the past few weeks I have watched all 13 episodes.

Hey Vern It's Ernest the  complete series
1988
Mill Creek Entertainment DVD set

We start off with a great cover that is very much in the spirit of the show's opening credits. The set has 2 DVDs. Each has around 2 1/2 hours of this somewhat forgotten classic kid's show. I would have liked if they included subtitles or closed captions. But that is a very very minor complaint that isn't  a big deal since the set has such a low price.

Each episode has a main focus,IE Outer Space,Scary Things,Movies,etc. And in most episodes Jim Varney plays at least 4 other non-Ernest characters. Plus we get some other people that were all in the first few Ernest films.

What really surprised me is how the show has held up. I was in my mid teens when it first aired and I did find it funny,but not nearly as funny as I find it now. And I am mid 30's now. I would love to find out why this only lasted one season.Also why that season is only 13 episodes. I thought that most Saturday morning shows of the late 80's did at least 17 episodes per season.

The picture and sound are great. Before this release all you could find was some old VHS releases that didn't look near as good as these DVDs. I am pretty sure that not all the episodes got a VHS release. Hey Vern It's Ernest gets  a B.

31 days of horror year 3 TV 03

American Horror Story Season 01 Episode 03

We start off in 1983. With the hot ass redheaded maid fixing up a bed. A man comes in and starts flirting with her,but she tries to ignore his advances. He gets mad and throws her onto the bed and starts to rape her. When all of the sudden Jessica Lange walks in and catches the two of them. It seems she is in love with the man,and she pulls out a pistol and shots the maid in her right eye. Of course this kills her,then Jessica shots the man 3 times killing him. 

We cut to the mom finding out that thanks to some bad investments,the family is almost broke. And after what happened in the last episode,she wants to sell the house and move into an apartment. But the Dad informs her that they can't afford to do this.

Well the next day or so the mom is out in the front yard cutting some roses and a tour group comes by. It seems the house is one of the stops on the "Eternal Darkness tour". Which takes people around Los Angles showing them different places that people have died. Their home is nicknamed "Murder House". Well the mom decides to go on the tour to see what all the tour guide has to say about the house.

While she is gone ,the woman the father had an affair with shows up. Informing him that she is not going to abort the child. Plus she expects him to pay for her to move out to LA. Finally he agrees to meet with her the next day. Well his next patient comes in and she is so boring his mind starts to wander. He blacks out and wakes up in  the backyard. Laying on the ground and with blood on his hands. He freaks out and runs back inside ,only to see the maid on her hands and knees scrubbing up blood off the floor. She tells him she has already cleaned up his office. He goes into his office to look for the digital recorder he uses during every patients session. But it is missing ,he confronts the maid about it. She denies taking it. And like in previous episodes the maid keeps trying to get the father to fuck her. This upsets him so much he grabs a hold of her and starts to shake the shit outta her. Well this is right when the mother decides to come home and she sees this.

We then cut to the kitchen and the parents are talking about if they should fire the maid. The dad wants her gone. But the maid calmly informs them that if she is fired she will sue them.So they reluctantly keep her. Well the mother has a meeting with the realtor that sold them the house. The realtor is told that she has to sell the house and get what the family has paid for it,and she needs to all she can to sell it quickly.

Well it seems to be the next day,the mom goes off on the Eternal Darkness tour. And while she is gone the father is arguing with the maid. When someone knocks at the front door. It is a detective,who informs them that the boring patient the father saw a few days ago is missing. So now the dad really thinks he has killed the boring woman. Well the ED tour gets to the house. And we learn that the house was built by a doctor who was pretty damn insane. Him and his wife back in the 20's were preforming abortions to pay their bills. Well all of the sudden the mom looks down and the crotch of her pants have this huge blood stain. So her and the father go off to see her doctor. They are informed that nothing is wrong. But that moving is a huge source of stress and they can't chance adding that much more stress to the mom. Or she might have another miscarriage.Later on that day there is a knock at the front door,and the mom goes to answer it. It is someone claiming they are there to see the house. So Connie invites the lady in. And it is the wife of the abortion doctor that first built the house. The wife walks around pointing out various stuff to the mom. They enter the kitchen,and the mom offers the wife a cup of tea. She turns her back to put the tea in the microwave. But when she turns back the wife is gone.

The father goes off jogging and again is confronted by one of the previous owners of the house. This time the burned up man ask for 1000 bucks so he can get some headshots for his next audition. The father of course turns him down. When the dad gets back to the house,the lady he had the affair with shows up and is super pissed. She now wants to tell the mother about the kid she is pregnant with. The dad is escorting her outta the house,when the burned up man pops up and beats the lady to death with a shovel. The dad wants to go call the cops,but the burned up man informs him that this isn't a good idea. So they decide to bury her in the backyard. Well the burned up man starts digging ,and we see that the maid and Jessica Lange are watching from one of the upper windows. Once the man finishes digging he finds a body already buried there. We cut back to the window and the maid is crying. Then Jessica tells her "Well I guess now you will be stuck here forever". So I must assume that this is where Jessica buried the maid's body after she killed her. We get a montage of the dad laying cement over the area and building a gazebo. Then we cut to later on that night they are both in bed. And you see a hand touching the mom's stomach. The camera pulls back and it is the abortion doctor's wife.

This show just keeps getting better and better with each episodes. I like how we find out why in episode two Jessica told the maid "Don't make me kill you again!". Plus we get a bunch more history of the house. American Horror story episode 03 gets a A-.

31 days of horror year 3 TV Shows 01

American Horror Story
FX
Wednesday 9pm Central

For the past 4 months I have been seeing a series of strange previews for American Horror Story. The previews had a very David Lynch quality to them. Well I love David Lynch and horror so I knew I had to try out this show. Well last week on Wednesday it premiered. But since I hate watching commercials I recorded it to a DVD-r. And didn't watch it till late Sunday night.

We start off a few years ago ,with two red headed twin boys heading into an abandoned house. They are warned not to go into it by a young girl that has Downs syndrome. They enter the house and start breaking shit with baseball bats. But some unseen force attacks them and kills them.

We jump ahead some unknown amount of years. And Dylan Mcdermot and Connie Britton are in a car with their daughter. They are moving to a new town. They show up at the house they are wanting to buy and it is the one that the twins died in. The Realtor tells them that the last owners died in the house. But the wife loves the house so much they buy it. It is this huge Gothic looking house. The next day while the mom is removing some wallpaper she gets to meet the downs syndrome girl and her mom. The mom is played by Jessica Lange. And we see Ms Lange stealing something outta a box. We find out that Connie Britton had a miscarriage and right after it caught her husband cheating on her.So this move is kind of a way to start over.

We cut to the daughter in school and she is having problems with some of the other girls. They seem to want to pick on her and try to start a fight with her. Also it turns out that the dad is  a shrink .He is using one of the rooms in the house as his office. We see him having a session with a teenage boy. The boy expresses an interest in the daughter. And later on the two of them plan some revenge on the girl that is being mean to the daughter.

We also get to meet the woman that has been the housekeeper of the house for years. But for some reason when the husband is looking at her he sees this young smoking hot red head. Instead of the old wrinkly lady that she is. Well strange stuff keeps on happening. Like the husband and wife find a old gimp outfit in the attic. And one night after they have had an argument,someone shows up in the bedroom wearing the gimp outfit and he has sex with Connie. But we see that the husband is in the kitchen and is in some kind of trance. The episode ends with Connie telling Dylan that she is pregnant. Which he finds to be strange cause they haven't had sex in over a year.

From just this first episode I am majorly impressed by the show so far. The acting is good. The girl with downs syndrome really impressed me. Connie Britton is an actress that I have enjoyed almost anything she has done. Plus she is a great looking lady for being as old as she is. Dylan McDermont I haven't seen in much but he does a good job in this episode. This will be a show I make it a point to not miss each week. The camera work and general strangeness of the show is a nice effect. American Horror Story episode 1 gets a A-.

31 days of horror year 2 day 23

Elvira's Movie Macabre The Satanic Rites of Dracula


I just finished watching this weeks episode of the new Elvira show. I have seen SRoD at least 2 times before and haven't ever really enjoyed it. Well even Elvira her cleavage and her witty quips couldn't save this shitstorm of a film. First off I am not a huge fan of the the various Hammer horror movies. Really the only one I enjoy is "Curse of the Werewolf" and that is more cause I am a huge fan of the late Oliver Reed. This is the second to last of the Hammer vampire movies. It is set in the current day of the 70's. A satanic cult is loose in England and sacrificing various nude women. The police find out and call on Peter Cushing as Van Helsing to help out. What really sucks about the movie is it is at least a third of the way in before we get to see Christopher Lee as Dracula. And he really doesn't have much to do in the film. I was kinda nice to see a young Joanna Lumley in this film. But even she couldn't save the us from horrible acting and a bad script. By it's self SRoD gets a D- but with the few bits from Elvira it goes up to a C-.

31 days of horror Year 2 day 8

Masters of Horror:The V word-Anchor bay dvd

This is an episode from the second and sadly last season of Master of Horror. Directed by Erik Dickerson and written by Mick Garris. This is the story about two late teen guys who goto the local mortuary to see the corpse of a guy that picked on them all the time. One of the guy's older cousin is the night watchman at the mortuary,but when they arrive there no one answers the door. But it is unlocked so they go inside.Once inside they get the feeling that something isn't right. I was impressed with the camera angles and the use of lighting in this section of the film.
Finally they discover that there is a vampire in the mortuary,who is played by Micheal Ironsides. While running away from them,one of the guys falls down the stairs and gets a compound fracture in his leg. So the other guy has to leave him behind. Later that night compound fracture guy shows up at the other guy's home and once he is inside he bites the other guy. And the film goes downhill from here. It started off pretty good and was able to build lots of tension,but once the second guy gets bite the film goes off the rails and even Micheal Ironsides overacting can't save it. This episode gets a C-.

Sons of Anarchy Season 2 dvd

Sons of Anarchy Season 2 DVD

The week before season 3 was to start the second season of my current favorite TV shows was released to DVD. The storyline that runs through the season is great. But I figure most people reading this have already seen season 2 so I will just review all the extras. First off you have commentaries on 3 different episodes,the first episodes,episode 8 and the last episode. All of them are well done and reveal lots of behind the scenes stuff. Then you get the best extra a 40+ minute short. This gathers all the main stars,besides Kim Coates,at a local bar. And they are asked various questions the fans have sent in. Plenty of decent questions,and I learned that the guy who plays Otto,is not only the producer of the show but also Katy Segal's husband. Weirdly in this feature they have the actor that plays Deputy Hale is there,but is never asked a question and IIRC never says a word. This DVD gets a A.

WWF Wrestling Challenge 5-27-89

Another day another episode of WWF Wrestling Challenge.This one is from 5/27/89. We start off with a match featuring Jake "the Snake" Roberts vs Tom Burton. Not as good as the Jake match on the other episode I watched,but even with a crappy jobber Jake can entertain. Next up is Big John Studd Vs an unnamed Jobber. Well first off I have never been a fan of Studd,he has to be one of the most boring big men in wrestling history. Yeah I know he was better than Giant Gonzalez,but at least Gonzalez had the "Freak show" factor. Anyway boring match,I am sure Big John Dudd won. Now it's time for a tag team match up first is Akeem and Big Bossman AKA the Twin Towers.I never got that name as a kid or even now,it ain't like either of them are really tall. They are facing a jobber team of JT thomas,who isn't that annoying kid from Home Improvement,and Red Tyler. Bossman is one of the few "fat" men that I found enjoyable. And Akeem who is a much better worker than Bossman is great,with all his mannerism and just his whole gimmick of being a black man trapped in a big fat pasty white body. The Twin Towers win,and so far this has been the best match on the show. JT Thomas takes nice bumps,and Red isn't bad for a late 80's WWF jobber. Great we hear music that sounds like rooster's crowing so that means the Red Rooster is on his way to the ring. Growing up in the Mid South/UWF territory I saw a bunch of Terry Taylor. And I was majorly dissapointed when he came to WWF and became one of the worst gimmicks ever. Well this match has him fighting Tim Stock. Even though Taylor is a good worker,you can tell he just doesn't care. The match was total shit.Now on to Curt "Mr Perfect" Henning vs Frank Delfalco. Curt is as always amazing. Delfalco is kinda a Northeast indy "legend". IIRC he also goes by Frankie "the Thumper" Defalco. Good match ,that Curt wins with the Perfectplex. I forgot to mention that earlier we get Mean Gene interviewing Zeus. And there has also been 3 different segments talking about "No Holds Barred". Time for the main event, and just like the last Wrestling Challenge I watched it is a shithole of a match. We get Hillbilly Jim vs another unnamed jobber. Match starts off with Jim wanting to shake hands. Does Jim think this is the early days of ROH? This match like all other HillbillyJim matches I have seen is horrible. Thankfully it is very short. This episode is noticeably better than the last one I watched and gets a B-.

WWF Wrestling Challenge 8/30/87

The other day I was going thru a stack of discs. And found one that had the 8/30/87 episode of Wrestling Challenge. Back in the day before cable was in my area this and Saturday Nights Main event were the only way to see WWF. Later on I have found out that Wrestling Challenge is considered the "B" show of all the syndicated WWF shows.

OK first match,we got Jake "the snake" Roberts vs Steve Lombardi. This is from before Lombardi became the Brooklyn Brawler,and at this time he was one of the more well known jobbers in the WWF. Decent match and of course Jake wins. After the pin he goes and gets his snake outta the bag and puts it on Steve. The second match has Killer Khan vs Jack Milliman. I am pretty sure Jack Milliman is the same guy who went by Jake Milliman in the AWA. Pretty crappy match,but I really don't think I have ever seen a good Killer Khan match. Third match has Butch "the Natural" Reed vs Brady Boone. This is Boone before he became Battlekat. Why hasn't there ever been a Battlekat action figure,he deserves one more than Shockmaster? Boone is a decent worker,and Reed is way under-rated. Sadly the match is short. But still it so far has been the best match on the show. Next up is George "the Animal" Steele vs Rick Gantner. Typical Steele match,lots of brawling and of course he rips open the top turnbuckle. I think Gantner was a guy who appeared a bunch on the various WWF syndicated shows. Usually he lost,actually I don't think I have ever seen him win a match. Time for the 5Th match of the show,and it's a tag team match. In one corner we have "The King" Harley Race and Hercules Hernandez vs a team of jobbers. The announcers never mention who the jobbers are. Race is decent in the match,but Hercules and the jobbers are just huge bags of suck. Now it's time for the WWF Wrestling Challenge main event. Koko B. Ware vs Dave Wagner,which confuses me cause that sounds more like an opening match than a main event. Koko is OK here,he was so much better back in Memphis. And Wagner,well he is total shit. Boring match that gets way too much time. The show ends with previews of who will be on the next weeks show. Overall a below average show,that wouldn't work at all today with the average wrestling fan. I give it a C-.

31 days of horror Day 19

Masters of Horror The Screwfly Solution

Source-Anchor Bay DVD

Based on the 1977 short story by Alice Sheldon,this episode from the second season of Masters of Horror. Directed by Joe Dante,This episode stars Jason Priestley and Elliott Gould. It's starts with a bunch of women being killed in Jacksonville Florida. Ahh the murderers are male and all of them say that God told them to cleanse the earth. Priestley and Gould are scientists that specialize in insects. Pretty soon there are outbreaks of violence against women all over the globe. Priestley realizes this has to been caused by someone or something that is trying to wipe out the human race. He calls his wife and tells her to get a gun,and take their daughter and drive as far north as they can. Flash forward about a month,and the wife and daughter are staying in Gould's cabin up in Canada. They come home one day to find Priestley there. After a confrontation the wife shoots Jason. And her and her daughter head further north. She pulls over on the side of the road to use the restroom,and while she is out in the woods the daughter steals the car and drives back to the cabin. The next morning when the wife gets back to the cabin she finds her daughter dead. Flash forward a month. We find out that Elliott isn't effected by the virus since he had him self chemically castrated. He dress the wife up as a man and him and her head even further north in Canada. They end up living in a tent way out in the woods,where Elliott gets a bad cold and dies. The wife buries him and goes into town to get supplies. The other men in the store notice something weird about her and follow her. She notices them following her and tries to lose them by running off into the woods. But they chase her. She finally hides in some brush and sees a bright light. The two guys come out in the clearing and see that the light is from two aliens. The aliens kill both the men and take some kind of fluid from their heads. The final scene is the wife huddled in a small shelter somewhere out in the woods,and you get the feeling that she is one of the last living females. I had read the story this was based on about 2 years ago,and was impressed by it. From what I can remember the film follows the story fairly closely. I don't remember the short story having the part with the aliens,but I might have just forgot that part. The low budget and filming it all in Vancouver Canada shows,mainly in the very beginning. Which is set in Texas,the people shown have very weird accents that are nothing like the normal Texas accent. But that is just a small nitpick. This was an enjoyable way to kill and hour and it gets an B.

31 Days of horror Day 9

Stephen King's Desperation

Source-Lionsgate DVD release

Desperation while not one of King's better novels was still a enjoyable read. This is a Made for TV adaptation of that novel. It starts with a couple who are driving a car across country. The lady of the couple mentions that the car and most of the stuff in it are her sisters. They get pulled over in the desert by a cop,Ron Perlman. He ask to search the car and they agree to the search. While looking in the trunk he discovers a bag of weed. So he arrest both of them and puts them in the back of his patrol car. While on the ride to the nearest town,the cop starts saying strange words and making very strange sounds. Then he coughs and blood sprays outta his mouth and hits the windshield. Once they get to the town,the couple notices that there is no one in the town. The cop pulls up to the jail and takes them inside. Inside they meet a family of 3,mom dad and son. After some quick thinking they manage to get outta the jail and are slowly making their way outta town when they start to realize that all is not as it seems. I was actually surprised at how much gore was in this since it was Made for TV,IIRC it aired on ABC. Overall the acting is good,and it follows the novel pretty closely until the very end. Then there is some changes from the novel,but they seem to mainly be because of budget reasons. Overall it is a solid B+.

31 Days of horror Day 8

Masters of Horror Dreams in the Witch House

Source-Anchor Bay retail release DVD

Again thanks to Netflix being a shithead I ended up changing what I was gonna review today. Luckily what was supposed to be here today is gonna be here tomorrow. Masters of Horror was a TV series that aired on Showtime for 2 seasons. Each Director was told to make an hour long short film,and not to worry about being censored. Stuart Gordon,who is a well known H P Lovecraft fan, based his short on the Lovecraft story "Dreams in the Witch House." College student Walter Gilman moves into a house that is used as a boarding house. He meets his neighbor who is a single mom with a very young baby. Then that night he starts seeing very weird things in the corners of his room,lots of geometric shapes and other stuff that looks kinda like stuff I saw in my 9th grade geometry class. The next day he is laying in his bed resting and a rat runs up on the bed,but this is no ordinary rat this rat has a human face. And it can talk. Walter starts seeing more and more strange things,and he has a dream where he tries to sacrifice the other tenant's baby. Turns out the witch,who lives inside the walls of the home,wants to be reborn and is gonna try to use the baby to facilitate that. I don't wanna spoil this very interesting story anymore so I will stop there. The effects are pretty good for something that is on a TV budget,and the acting while not the best is better than most television level acting. Stuart Gordan is really good at keeping you off kilter and keeping a sense of dread building. This is a A-,would have been higher but it was a little too short.